Improvement in the manufacture of ruffles



PATENTED' SEPT. 25,1860,

G. B. ARNOLD. MANUFACTURE OF RUFFLES.

WN f! Za e 1,76 3

. ;UNITED STATES PATENT Y ()FFICE.

GEORGE B. ARNOLD, OF NEW'YORK, Y.

A IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFA'CTURE OFRUFFLES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 30, l l l, dated September 25, 1860.

To all whom it may concern:, 1

Be it known that I, GEORGE B. ARNOLD, of the city of New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Gathered Fabrics known as Ruffles or Flounces; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1' is a section through the fabric, showing the position of the gathers and thread when the chain-stitch is used. Fig. 2 is a section through the fabric, showing the'position of the gathers and thread when the lock-stitch is used. Fig. 3 is a section taken at right angles to Figs. 1 and 2.

- Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the drawings.

To enableothers skilled in the art to make and. use my invention, I will proceed to describe it by thaaid of the drawings.

The fabric A is folded as shown by A in Fig. 3. The thread which holds the gathers is represented by B in Fig. 1- and by B and O in Fi 2. mid. In Fig. 1 the stitch is a chain-stitch, which I generally prefer. In Fig. 2 it is alockstitch, the'needle-tlu'ead being markedB and the shuttle-thread O.

The gathers in my improved ruffle or flounce may be evenly laid, sharply defined, and rendered very attractive in appearance by the use of mechanism invented by myself, and for which Letters Patent of the United States were issued, dated May 8, 1860, this mechanism being so constructed as to form and hold each gather in-place while the thread-or threads are'passed through and drawn up with a tight tension, forming a tight lock or chain stitch. To produce my new and improved article by the aid of such machine, I insert into the machine the strip of cloth from-which it is to be formed, and allow it to be operated on by the two feeding-surfaces and by the needle and thread in the same manner as the lower piece of cloth is operated on in said patent-that is to say, in my patent of May 8, 1860, No. 28,139. The operation of that machine is described 7 when two pieces of cloth are inserted together one upon the other. In the production of my present improved ruffie or flou'nce by such ma- The stitch may be of any ordinary.

' chine theoperation is identical therewith, ex-

cept that only one piece of cloth is inserted. Other machines than the one before described may perhaps be used-to produce such article as, for example, the improved sewing-machine patented to G.'B. and A. Arnold, of even date herewithbut I prefer the machine first above referred to. In any machine of analogous character it is necessary to introduce but a single piece of cloth and to so adjust the parts of the machine that the gathers will be made of the degree of fullness required either by the action of the parts of the machine alone or by the action of I the parts of the machine in combination with the action of the thread, and will be firmly fastened by the thread or threads without being secured to any'plain piece of cloth or'bind- =ing.

The fold A is given by turning over the edge of the cloth A before it is gathered. This may be done by the employment of what is known as Chapins folding-guide or any analogous device. The fold may in the absence of any such apparatus be made by hand; but I prefer the use of a folding-guide for the purpose.

The cloth being-folded before it is gathered,

the gathering operation affects both the parts alike, and the result is the production of a fabric gathered on the folded edge,which is very perfect in itself, with no raw edge to be unraveled, and with thegathers so firmly secured in place relatively to each other that it, may be passed under the presser'of asewingmachine in the uniting of it to any garment without in the least disturbing the relation of the gathers or impairing the uniformity of the distances of each from the other. My new ruflle or flounce may also be rapidly sewed upon any garment by hand with the overhand or any other stitch without being careful to put a stitch in each gather, and the gathers will keep their places perfectly. For some uses this is a very important quality, as the rufiie or fiounce may be removed to be laundered, and be again loosely secured, or, as it is technically termed, catched on, by very long stitches, and made to serve the purpose. with perfection.

The absence of a binding cheapens the ruffie, gives it abetter appearance in some situations, and allows it to be applied smoothly and edges of a double fabric.

' ble 'tliicknessiof gathere perfectly to a serrated or otherwise curved edge. This latter property isimportant, and is not possessed by a rufile with a binding, beausethe binding, being p1ain,cannot be bent ed ewise except to a very moderate extent.

- y reference to Figs. land 2 it will be seen that it is not necessary to pass the thread through the diiferent folds, asshown in my patent dated May 8, 1860, numbered 28,244. In practice the fabric is almost universally 'plaited, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the folds or plaits lying between and not opposite the points at which the thread penetrates, the cloth. K

For some purposes I make my new ruflle or flounce without the folded edge A, employing the same means asv above described to gather and retain theother part, A. The form of my invention now referred to is identical with that shown in the figures, except that the folded part A is absent. The purposes to which this form of the goo'dsis best adapted are those inwhich the rnfile issecured to or between the For example, a collar, when made double, is composed of two pieces of cloth similar in size and form each to the other, with their edges coinciding each with the other in-position, and turned or folded inward, so as to conceal the raw edges. "In applying a indie to such a garment my single rufile, without the fold A, is preferable, as it may be inserted between the two portions of the cloth, and its raw edge will'be better concealedthanif iolded over in the manner shown by A'. It will also make athinner seam by reason of its adding asi le-in lieu of a doucloth thereto. It differs from the indie or flounce secured to me by Letters Patent dated May 8, 1860, in that it has 'no binding or platn piece of cloth to which the gathers are secured. In thismy presentinvention the gathers are heldin place by the'thread or threads directly and alone in lieu of being held bysuchthread or threads upon a binding, and depending on the bind ing to preserve their position. In this in present invention-the thread is applied closely to the gathers on each side of the fabric, and holdsthegathers or plaits, in place by the interlooping of the stitches-if a chain-stitch is used, or by the mutual bending of both threads,

and interlocking within the limits of the thickness-ofthe goods, if thelockstitch is used.

\Vhengather's are held by means of :a single gathering-thread run in :by hand, and on which the gathers arestr'ung like beads, they are free to ,slip on traverse longitudinally. on the gathering-thread.- They are almost certain to do so when the gathers are, passed underv the presser of a sewing machine in orderto sew the gathered fabric upon another piece, because the contact with the presser opposes c considerable resistance to the passage of a gather, which resistance the friction of the gathering-thread ona single gather is not able machine-stitches, that being 1 o overcome. The gather therefore stops, while ed t 1 the body of the cloth is" moved forward until slip'longitudinally onsuch thread, as in gathered fabrics made by hand, and this effect does result to quite aserious degree. Gathers held by threads arranged in the manner employed in my invention do not ,in practice so slip, and from the position of the threads they cannot do so; If the lock-stitch is employed to secure them, asshown in Fig. 2, each thread is tightly embraced and bent by the other thread. Neither lies straight, but each is'drawn more or less into the cloth. Any force applied to .the gathers by the presser of the machine by obstructing the motion falls up or thickens thecle al andthercby tightens the contact of the threads B andG each with. the other and increases the security .of their'confinement- If the chain-stitch is employed in lieu of the lock-stitch, as shown in Fig, 1, any movement of the gathers is opposed by an amount of friction stillr'nore forbidding-than that already described.

The better to show the difl'erence between my improved gathered fabric and any before known, I have prepared the diagrams marked M, 17,0, and P, which appear at the bottom. of my sheet of drawings. These diagrams do not show my invention or any part thereof;

but, on the contrary, show the means of holding gathers which were previously known. M shows gathers run by hand. N shows'the same after being sewed upon other goods by-a sewing-machine, the thread. by which 'it is thus sewed not being represented. 9 shows gathers made by the use of a lock-stitchs'ewinmachine with slack tension, one of the'thr a being afterward drawn straight and the cloth compressed into gathers thereon. 1? shows the sameafter being sewed upon other goods by a sewing-machine,the thread by which it is thus-sewed not being represented. 7

It. will be observedthat there is a straight thread in eachof these gathered fabrics, and that the friction on such straight thread is all :that holds the gathers to prevent their slip ping longitudinally like beads loosely strung.

In my improvement, on the contrary, the

gathers are each firmly locked.

I do not inthis application claim a rumbr flounce inwhich the gathers or plaitsarc. secured by stitching them upon an ordinary or other plain piece of cloth by a single row -of already secured to me by Letters Patent dated May 8, 1860,

meant; but,

In, gathered fabrics thus-made, the gathers are also at liberty to or plaited fabric made as above described Having now fully described my invention, stitching apparatus of a sewing-machine at what I claim as new therein, and desire to seone and the same operation when no binding cure by Letters Patent, isor foundation fabricis employed.

As a new article of manufacture, the rufiie GEO B ARNOLD that is to say, the fabric to be plaited or ruf- Witnesses: fled being operated upon so as to be rufiied THOMAS D. STETSON, by the feeding device, and fastened by the A. SNYDER. 

